BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 349 



Gaston, who had gone more to the left and mounted some- 

 what higher, brought me down Thalictrum macrocarpum, 

 Grenier ; Saxifraga aretioides, Lapeyr. ; Veronica aphylla, 

 Sedum atratum and a few other things. I must not omit 

 to state that I gathered Saxifraga umbrosa, hirsuta, and 

 Geum growing together, and I wish I could say not passing 

 into each other. I feel satisfied, however, that if we will 

 have two species, we must, to be consistent, admit three, 

 the three above-named, which are admirably though briefly 

 characterised in the second edition of Koch's Synopsis. I have 

 seen few Saxifragets in the Pyrenees which might not safely 

 be referred to one or the other of these, yet there are some 

 which appear exactly intermediate : between S. umbrosa and 

 hirsuta, for example, I have observed a state possessing an 

 expanded and cuneate petiole as in the former, and yet hairy 

 m the entire upper surface, and another with leaves oblong- 

 rotundate, tapering suddenly into the petiole (as in S. hir- 

 suta) and yet the latter merely ciliate at the margins. As 

 to the cuttings of the edges of the leaves, all the three vary 

 from crenate to inciso-serrate. 



My shorter excursions around Laruns did not yield me 

 much. The gorge of the Eaux-Chaudes, though not sur- 

 passed in magnificence by any in the whole range, is very 

 barren of Cryptogamia, as are indeed most of the trans- 

 versal valleys of the Pyrenees; while the valleys parallel 

 to the central ridge are on the contrary usually very rich. 

 It was in this gorge I saw Tortula paludosa for the first time, 

 but the capsules were old and without peristome, and it was 

 not until the end of autumn, when I found it in good state 

 ln a Afferent locality, that I recognised it. In the axils of 

 the uppermost leaves of the barren plants, I observe almost 

 constantly certain roundish bodies, resembling the gemmae 

 of Bryum annotinum, and supported like them on a short 

 Pellucid jointed stalk, but composed of much smaller 

 granules. I added also to my collection, Arabis alpina, 



uinthus Monspessulanus, Helianthemum canum, Trifulium 

 m °ntanum, Teucrium Pyrenaicum, Globularia nana and rnedi- 



